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Don’t Be Fooled (It’s Not Actually Google)

May 10, 2017

In the past, we have alerted our customers and other local businesses regarding telemarketers and mail/email spam claiming to come directly from Google or on behalf of Google. Their sales pitches and/or services offered will vary, but all have one thing in common, they are deceiving businesses and website owners to pay for something they don’t want, need or understand.

We recently had a firsthand experience that took this tactic to a new level. Last week, we had a salesman come into our Billings office wearing a “Google” t-shirt and selling a service that included various SEO benefits, which would “help a business/website rank higher in Google searches”. He began by stating that Google recently made a “big change” and that the only way for businesses to succeed going forward is to work with his company. He went on to further state that Google has told them that they are wanting to eliminate companies that offer SEO services (like Zee Creative) and claimed that the founder of their company was a former high level Google employee (we could find no evidence to support this claim) and that he’s “in the meetings at Google headquarters” where he receives inside information about Google’s algorithm. One of the most outrageous of his claims was that they have direct access to “Google’s servers” and that the information they submit carries “one thousand times the weight” than it would if submitted by a normal user.

We want to remind you that Google does not send out representatives, and especially won’t do so unannounced. If someone contacts you unsolicited in any way, claiming they are from Google or have a special partnership with Google and/or access to their data, you can be assured that they don’t. Be especially wary if they make claims about search engine optimization (SEO) or increasing search rankings.

Google is well aware of these types of scams and has even published warnings against companies who are participating in this all too common form of deception. Google warns specifically to not work with companies that claim they have a “special relationship” with Google or that guarantee #1 rankings…both are simply not true.

Our goal in everything that we do is to provide a high-quality product at a reasonable price. These types of scams take advantage of unsuspecting businesses and diminish the quality of our industry as a whole, so we take them very seriously. If you have any questions or concerns about an experience you’ve had, please let us know and we can do our best to help.